Fright Night (2011)
Fright Night is a 2011 3D American comedy horror film. A remake of Tom Holland's 1985 film of the same name, the film was adapted by Marti Noxon and directed by Craig Gillespie. It stars Anton Yelchin, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, David Tennant and Colin Farrell as the titular antagonist Jerry Dandrige. Filmed in Real D 3D, Fright Night was produced by DreamWorks studios and distributed by Touchstone Pictures, a Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group company. The film premiered at The O2 in London on August 14, 2011 and was released wide in the US on August 19, 2011. Plot Much like the original film, this version focuses on teenager Charley Brewster, who finds himself pitted against his new next-door neighbour, the charismatic and lethal vampire Jerry Dandridge. The film opens with an unseen vampire systematically stalking and killing an entire family in a suburb of Las Vegas, Nevada. The film then focuses on Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin), a teenager who discovers that a new neighbor has moved in next door to him. Charley is an average teen, who has recently been accepted as one of the 'cool' kids after a nerdy adolescence. Upon arriving at school, Charley's former friend, "Evil Ed" Lee (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), informs him that many fellow students have gone missing. Charley disregards this, but Ed blackmails him into coming to an old friend's house, the same house seen at the beginning, to check if he is alright. When Charley goes home after school, his mother (Toni Collette) introduces him to Jerry (Colin Farrell), who is their new neighbor. Charley eventually remembers to meet up with Ed, who informs him that Jerry is a vampire. Charley becomes fed up with Ed and leaves. On his way home, Ed is harassed by a Mark (Dave Franco). He manages to escape but is confronted by Jerry who, after some empathetic coercing, bites him. The next day, Charley realizes that Ed is missing and decides to go to his house to investigate. As Jerry begins to attack more people throughout the neighborhood, Charley sneaks into Jerry's house and finds out that he keeps his victims in secret rooms. Charley manages to free one of his victims, but she is instantly incinerated the moment she steps into the sunlight during their escape. Charley goes to Las Vegas in order to enlist the expertise of occult magician Peter Vincent (David Tennant), a supposed expert on vampires. Unfortunately, Vincent doesn't take him seriously, and kicks him out, leaving an angry Charley to deal with Jerry on his own. Jerry comes to Charley's house the next night and complains to his mother, but Charley convinces her not to let him in. Reasoning that if there's no house, he needs no invitation to enter in order to claim his victims, Jerry ignites the natural gas in the house and blows it up. Charley, his mother, and his girlfriend, Amy Peterson, (Imogen Poots), barely escape with their lives, fleeing through the desert in their minivan. Jerry chases them with his truck, forcing them to crash. When their disabled car is then hit by another vehicle, Jerry kills the driver (played in cameo by Chris Sarandon). Jerry then attacks Charley, and is only stopped by being staked by Charley's mother (with a real estate sign stake). She then faints from a head injury sustained in the crash. Charley's mother is then admitted to a hospital. At the hospital, Charley gets a call from Peter telling him to come over. Peter gives Charley advice on how to defeat Jerry, but midway through the conversation Ed (now a vampire) shows up, posing as a package delivery boy. Charley and Ed fight while Vincent hides in his panic room. Jerry, who survived the attack from Charley's mother, also arrives, and Amy manages to incapacitate him momentarily with holy water. Charley kills Ed, who briefly reassures Charley before dying that it's okay. With Jerry in pursuit, Charley and Amy then run into a club where they get separated in the crowd. Amy is hypnotized, bitten and taken by Jerry. The next day Charley tells Peter that he is going after Jerry and he needs his help. Peter refuses and reveals that both of his parents were killed by a vampire (later revealed to be Jerry himself). He does, however, give Charley a stake that will kill Jerry and turn all of his victims back into humans. Charley goes to fight Jerry at his house where Peter decides to join him after all. The two break all of the windows to let sunlight in. They are led into Jerry's basement where they are attacked by many of Jerry's victims, now vampires, including Amy. Charley, having outfitted himself in a flame-retardant suit, lights himself on fire in order to burn and disorient Jerry while he tries to stake him. Peter assists him by shooting a hole in the floor above to allow sunlight in which burns Jerry. Charley quickly stabs Jerry in the heart, killing him instantly and returning his victims to their human form. Afterwards, Charley's mother recovers from the hospital and goes to shop for a new house. Cast *Colin Farrell as Jerry Dandridge *Anton Yelchin as Charley Brewster *David Tennant as Peter Vincent *Imogen Poots as Amy Peterson *Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Edward "Evil" Lee *Toni Collette as Jane Brewster *Dave Franco as Mark * Reid Ewing as Ben * Will Denton as Adam Johnson *Sandra Vergara as Ginger *Emily Montague as Doris *Lisa Loeb as Victoria Lee *Brian Huskey as Rick Lee *Grace Phipps as Bee * Chris Sarandon, who portrayed Jerry in the original film, makes a cameo appearance as a motorist killed by the vampire (his character is credited as "Jay Dee", after the initials of his original character). Production Principal photography with 3D cameras began in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, with Las Vegas set as the backdrop on July 26, 2010, and wrapped on October 1, 2010. Fright Night was produced by DreamWorks Pictures and distributed worldwide by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through the Touchstone Pictures label. Steven Spielberg provided a great deal of input in the making of the film, such as storyboarding scenes and assistance with editing. Home Video Fright Night was released on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Combo Pack on December 13, 2011. Both versions include Bloopers, the Kid Cudi music video "No One Believes" (Uncensored Version) and the extended and uncut version of "Squid Man" , a short home video that Charley and his friends made prior to the events in the film. The blu-ray versions also includes five deleted/extended scenes (Ride To School, Neighborly, Once a Freak always a Freak, Midori and Kerosene, & Back At the Penthouse), the featurettes Peter Vincent: Come Swim in My Mind and The Official "How to Make a Funny Vampire Movie" Guide. Reaction Critical response Fright Night received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 72% of 163 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 6.3 out of 10. The general consensus states: "It may not have been necessary to remake the 1985 cult classic, but the new Fright Night benefits from terrific performances by Colin Farrell and David Tennant -- and it's smart, funny, and stylishly gory to boot." It is Certified Fresh with the 80% of the site's Top Critics giving the film a positive review. On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 64 based on 30 reviews. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B-minus" on an A+ to F scale. Robert Koehler of Variety writes, Fright Night has "a cleverly balanced mix of scares and laughs". Box office Fright Night opened in number six in the box office. The film grossed $7,714,388 in its opening weekend and finished with a domestic grossing of $18,302,607 and $22,700,000 in other countries, giving a worldwide total of $41,002,607 against its $30 million budget. Accolades Fangoria Chainsaw Awards * Best Wide-Release Film: 2012 IGN Best of 2011 * Best Horror Movie: 2011 Reaction of the Original Film's Cast/Crew The original film's antagonist, Chris Sarandon, was offered a role in the remake and chose to pass on the torch by doing a cameo as a man who's eaten by Jerry Dandrige. Sarandon pointed out that "It's not the original and they didn't set out to make the original," but the cast and crew of the remake "were all huge fans."Fright Night Reunion Q&A Panel from Days of the Dead Colin Farrell had watched the film countless times during his youth and publicly stated, "I heard they were remaking Fright Night and went, ‘Ah, god, remake! Hollywood, so dull! And I read the script and really hoped I didn't like it, and I did.Colin Farrell accidentally disses his 'Fright Night' remake Recalled Sarandon of his first encounter with Farrell, "He walked in and he literally was almost shaking, he was so excited at the prospect of meeting his childhood idol. He gave me a beautiful bottle of wine and a DVD set of the Carl Dreyer "Vampyr." It was a really graceful and wonderful introduction."'Fright Night' remake stars Colin Farrell, who was starstruck when meeting idol Chris SarandonAlthough he was intimidated about following Sarandon's performance, Farrell perceived his character as a completely different beast. "Chris Sarandon's Jerry was so debonair and was so suave and so dignified and my guy is kind of a social parasite!" During a reunion panel discussion at Monsterpalooza in 2012, the cast of the original film discussed the remake at length. Amanda Bearse commented that "as a stand-alone horror movie, it was very well done. It didn't lessen the appeal of the original. It was just more of a one-note film." Stephen Geoffreys only watched the first 20 minutes and then turned it off. Jonathan Stark and William Ragsdale went to a screening and discovered they "were the only two people" in attendance. Ragsdale liked an early draft of the screenplay, but he wasn't particularly enamored with the final result and was perplexed that "there was kind of a nastiness to" the Evil Ed character. The discussion dragged on for so long that the audience roared with laughter when Sarandon sarcastically interrupted Ragsdale to declare, "I'm sure there are some other questions about the original Fright Night." When asked his thoughts in 2015, creator Tom Holland replied, "Kudos to them on every level for their professionalism, but they forgot the humor and the heart. They should have called it something other than Fright Night, because it had no more than a passing resemblance to the original. What they did to Jerry Dandrige and Peter Vincent was criminal." Smiling, he added, "Outside of that, it was wonderful."The Bloodshed Exclusive: Tom Holland Reflects on 30 Years of Fright Night Sequel A sequel titled Fright Night 2: New Blood ''was filmed in Romania. It stars Will Payne, Jaime Murray, Sean Power, Sacha Parkinson and Chris Waller. The film was released direct to DVD on October 1, 2013. Though billed as a sequel, the film repeats the plot of the original and remake, with none of the 2011 cast, and no reference made to events in the previous film (for example, the character of Evil Ed, killed in ''Fright Night, is alive in the "sequel"). Gallery Posters FN-2011.jpg Colin-farrell.jpeg| Anton-yelchin.jpeg| David-tennant.jpeg| Imogen-poots.jpeg| Evil Ed Poster.jpg| Fright Night 2011 Poster You Can't Run From Evil.jpg Screencaps SS-11-01.jpg SS-11-02.jpg SS-11-03.jpg SS-11-04.jpg SS-11-05.jpg SS-11-06.jpg SS-11-07.jpg SS-11-08.jpg SS-11-09.jpg SS-11-10.jpg SS-11-11.jpg SS-11-12.jpg SS-11-13.jpg SS-11-14.jpg SS-11-15.jpg SS-11-16.jpg SS-11-17.jpg SS-11-18.jpg SS-11-19.jpg SS-11-19a.jpg SS-11-20.jpg SS-11-21.jpg SS-11-22.jpg SS-11-23.jpg SS-11-24.jpg SS-11-25.jpg SS-11-26.jpg SS-11-27.jpg SS-11-28.jpg SS-11-29.jpg SS-11-30.jpg SS-11-31.jpg SS-11-32.jpg SS-11-33.jpg SS-11-34.jpg SS-11-35.jpg SS-11-36.jpg SS-11-37.jpg SS-11-38.jpg SS-11-39.jpg SS-11-40.jpg Fright Night.jpg|Charley, Amy, and Bee Trailer References External Links *Screenplay at Internet Movie Script Database